Inflated golf-ball and process of making



F. T. ROBERTS.

INFLATED GOLF BALL AND PROCESS OF MAKING.

APPLICATION FILED AUGJB, I91]. 1

Patented J an. 27, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET lv F. T; ROBERTS.

INFLATED GOLF BALL AND PROCESS OF MAKING.

APPLICATION FILED AUGJG I917- Patented Jan 27,1920.

2 snsUs-snan 2.

- 9,07 Wino/(1w; cif/ M v? UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED THOMAS ROBERTS, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE ARANAR COMPANY,

OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO,

INFLATED GOLF-BALL AND PROCESS or MAKING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 27, 1920.

Application filed August 16, 1917. Serial No. 186,476.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, FRED THOMAS ROBERTS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have inventeda certain new and useful Improvement .in Inflated Golf- Balls and Processes of Making, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to golf balls having an elastic core and an elastic winding about the core. The objects of the invention are to provide windings in a manner which shall give it a high tension in the -finished ball; to provide a core made hollow but completely and effectively closed and ofsuch strength as to resist the tension of I the winding; further in the preferred form to secure within the core fluid of a high pressure, and finally toeflect the making, closing and filling of the core and its vulcanization before it is wound whereby thetension of the winding isnot disturbed by the vulcanizing of the core.

The ball and the process of making it embodying the above characteristics will be hereinafter more fully described and the essential features summarized in the claims.

It should be noted that heretofore in the manufacture of golf balls, it has been common to provide a resilient core and a winding of rubber strands around the same under tension. The core has sometimes been made solid, which does not give the resilience of a hollow core. It has been proposed to make it hollow and fill it with a fluid under pressure injected after the ball is completed, which has disadvantages in sealing the opening through which the injection has been made It has also been proposed to make the core hollow and of cupshaped halves completely vulcanized .and thereafter cemented together about a heat expanding chemical. This has disadvan tages in that the vulcanized halves are not likely to be firmly .secured together. Another method proposed for securing a pressure within the core has been to completely inclose a heat expanding chemical within unvulcanized cup-shaped parts and then to wind them, and then vnlcanize the whole ball. This method has the disadvantagc that the \iulcanizing heat will injuri-- ously affect the winding.

In carrying out my process in its preferred manner, I form the hollow core in cup-shaped parts of raw rubber and bring them together in an atmosphere of compressed air or other fluid and then vulcanize them together, after which I wind the core and place the cover upon the winding.

Bymaking the cup-shaped parts very heavy (that is to say with the wall at least as thick as the diameter of the opening within the core) I am able to'hold within the, core,

' when vulcanized and without being wound,

a pressure of several hundred pounds. This pressure tends to expand the core and this gives a constant tension to a winding about the core which compresses it.

' In applying my winding, I lace it in alternate regions approximate y ninety (90) degrees apart and I wind the first region tight enough about one great circle of the core to compress it into an ellipsoidal shape with its major axis at right anglesto the plane of the winding. Then I apply another zone of winding in the such major axis of the ellipsoidal core with such'tension to convert this major axis into a minor axis and stretch the preceding winding, the zone of which now becomes the major axis of the ellipsoidal ball. I then apply a .winding between thetwo wound zones and one at right angles to it. I continue this method of alternate windin shifting'the zones thereof about the balE until the core isentirely covered and it iscentral section through a complete golf ball formed by my process; Fig. 2 is an eleva tion of the core after being closed and vulcanized; Fig. 3 is an elevation showing the starting of the winding, whereby the core becomes distorted; Fig. 4 is an elevation illustrating a distortion in the opposite direction; Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view illm- 'trating this distortion whereby the. tension plane 'of of the strand is increased; Fig. 6 is an elevation of the complete winding surrounding the core; Fig. 7 is an elevation of the completed ball partly in section; Fig. 8 is a vertical section through an apparatus for entrapping high pressure, fluid within the core; Fig. 9 is a horizontal section substantially on the line 99 of Fig. 8; Fig. 10 1s a fragmentary sectional detail of a port1on of the apparatus shown in Fig. 8, illustrating the mold members after they are brought together.

Referring first to Figs. 8, 9 and 10, 32 indicates a suitable receptacle which with a cover .35 provides a chamber adapted to contain molds in an atmosphere of highly compressed fluid. 30 indicates a pipe leading to this chamber through which compressed fluid, for instance, air under several hundred pounds of pressure, may be applied to the chamber. This chamber is arranged to inclose a suitable mold and provide for its convenient placement and removal, and also having means for closing the molds while within the chamber. As shown, the cup-like base portion has a flange 33 meeting a flange 34 of the cover 35.- The cover is substantially dome-shaped and fits the upper edge of the base and is secured by a series of pivot bolts 37 extending through ears'below the flange 33 and integral with the wall. The bolts 36 receive nuts 38 and normally stand in registering slots in the flanges, whereby they may be swung outwardly to permit ready removal of the cover.

The cover 35 carrie a stufling box member 40 adapted to .cause packing 42 to em brace a shank 44 of a wrench having a socket portion 45 and threaded at 46 into a central boss on the prevent the internal pressure forcing the wrench outwardly. The upper end of the wrench may be provided with a removable hand wheel 48 or crank of any suitable form. Eye-bolts 49 threaded into the cover provide for removing the same from the box with the wrench in position.

The mold plates are shown as circular members 50 and 51 provided with hemispherical cavities to receive the halvesA and A of the ball core and adapted to be brought together and secured by a screw-54 having a collar 56 rotatably fitting a cavity and held in position by a washer-like collar 57 The screw has only its lower portion threaded and is adapted to extend into a nut 58 which may be seated and positioned in an angular cavity in the base of the chamber 32 and turned by the socket portion 45 engaging the angular portion 59 of the screw. The upper mold plate preferably has eyes 60 w ich may be engaged by suitable apparatus for placing it in position and removing it. The molds are prevented bolts 36 embracing interior of the cover to.

from turning in the cavity as the screwzis actuated to bring them together by the nut engaging the angular recess in the lower mold plate and the angular recess in the bottom of the chamber. Dowel pins indicated at 61 may cause the mold cavities to register. At 65 is provided a relief passage communicating with the interior of the chamber 32 and controlled by a valve 66.

The operation of the above described molds and containing chamber with the means for bringing the molds together is similar to that shown, described and claimed October 19, 1915. In the present instance, the hemispherical parts, closed within this chamber to entrap the highly compressed air, are vulcanized together, forming the complete sphere shown in Fig. 2. having a wall whose thickness is substantially equal to the diameter of the cavity. When the parts are vulcanized together andreleased from the mold cavities the great interior pressure actually expands the walls of the sphere, subjecting the wall to tension which increases its resiliency. The sphere thus formed is illustrated particularly in Fig. 2. A and A being the two halves and the part A having an upwardly beveled edge a meeting a correspondingly inwardly beveled edge on the portion A, insuring more accuously stretched to substantially its elastic limit, whereby a considerable number of turns produces sufficient tension to distort the sphere into the oval form illustrated in Fig. 3. To further increase the tension of the strands B after they are Wound and at the same time avoid the danger of breaking the strands, which would be incident to drawing them more tightly during the winding, I wind a series of strands B in the opposite direction; that is, substantially at right angles to the turns B until the sphere is distorted into an oval whose long axis is at right angles to the former long axis. thus stretching all of the strands B. This alternating of the winding is repeated at considerable number of times, care being taken thatthe series of bands last put on shall stretch those just previously wound and still be so positioned as to retain the substantiallv spherical form. After repeating this-alternate winding of the successive series in opposite directions a sufficient number of times to bring the balls substantially to the desired size for receiving the cover, I may add in my prior Patent No. 1,157,420, issued I circle C, as illustrated in the 1 smaller in diameter than the the comparatively few remaining turns in such a manner to fill up the low points, thus producing the substantially spherical windsition B The strands B are then applied .to a zone substantially at'right angles to the first series until the strands B are stretched outwardly past the circle C, as illustrated at B While the strands B occupy a zone 7 normal sphere, as illustrated by the dotted lines B. It will be seen that a repetition of this winding will finally bring the sphere substantially back to normal (illustrated by the circle C) but that each series'of strands is so wound that rounds to come to its normal COI1tI3Ct'th6 zone it occupies to within the normal s here. The result is that the ten- 'tion the prisoning such air within the cavities of the 35 is then placed in it must expand to permit the surface it surspherical form, by reason of it being so wound, at first, as to sion oft is winding is much greater than when merely wound snugly but not sufliciently to 'distort the ball at any stage, and

as before seated, this greater tension corres spondingly adds to the resiliency of the ball. Having brought the winding B to the proper size, the end of th e strand is tucked in or otherwise secured, and the ball is then finished. by adding the usual outer cover of comparatively hard rubber.

A more complete description of the operahigh pressure air and the mold for imall cores is as follows: The cavities in the mold'plates are filled with hemispheres A and A and the mold plates are then lowered intothe receptacle 32 until the nut 58 occupies its recess in the bottom thereof while the screw 54 through its flange 56 supports the upper mold plate in a position slightly separated from the lower mold plates admitting the air between the molds. The cover position and very tightly secured by the'bolts 36 and nuts 38 brought upwardly from the position shown in dotted lines and the nuts 38 tightened, the valve 66 is .then closed and compressed fluid admitted throughthe p'pe 30. .The supply for the compressed fluid or the means for compressing it, as-we'll as the piping and valves between the same and the pipe 30 are not illustrated, as they may be of any satisfactory form. I

The hand wheel 48 may now be operated to bring the two mold plates together, causball having resilience from of the apparatus shown for producing ing the hemispheres therein to tightly abut,

the threads 46 causing the shank of'the socket wrench to follow the screw 46 during its closing movement. The screw 46 acts as a comparatively permanent clamp tohold the mold plates together so that the air entrapped within the core cavities may remain imprisoned when the moldplates are removed from the chamber. Beforeremoving the mold plates, the valve 66 is opened'to vent the chamber 32 through the pipe 65, reducing the air therein to atmosphere (except that imprisoned within the rubber articles), whereupon the nuts 38 may be loosened and the bolts thrown outwardly to permit raising the cover 35. The closed mold is then removed and replaced by another slightly open, as shown in Fig. 8, the cover replaced and the wrench caused to en gage the, head of the screw 54.

The removed mold is transferred in its closed condition to a suitable vulcanizer and the balls with their entrapped air are vulcanized without separation of the mold members. After vulcanization the mold members are separated and the balls removed. Their walls are of such thickness as to effectively hold the high pressure fluid. When the winding is thereafter applied, the core is compressed in the region of the winding and thereafter expanded by another zone of winding as already explained.

The operation above described sets process in its preferred form, producinga the highly ten-' 'sioned winding, from elastic hollow core and from fluid under pressure within a core. Such a ball is very lively in use. For some purposes, however, it is not essential to have the high pressure fluid and the construction may be cheapened by omitting this step in the process, the sections of the core being formed as shown and brought together, edge to edge, and vulcanized to make a .hollow core with simply air under atmospheric pressure in the interior. The great thickness of the wall of this core provides an efl'ective reacting resistance to the tensioned winding, while the hollow. center enables the core wall to yield when the ball is struck.

Having thus described my invention, what claim is:

1. A golf ball comprising an inner core formed of joined parts containing highly compressed air and vulcanized, a winding surrounding such core consisting of a large number of turns of an-clastic band under tension, said core having a 'wall of suflicient thickness relative to ,the volume of the cavity to retain the highly compressed fluid after the core has been vulcanized and before the winding is applied, and a casing fitting over out my 3. A golf ball comprising a core having an internal cavity of a diameter not greater than the thickness of the core wall, the core being vulcanized and imprisoning an atmosphere of highly compressed air, a winding of elastic bands under tension around the core, and a casing forming the exterior of the ball and fitting the outside of the fluid ma hollow core, vulcanizing winding.

4:. A golf ball including a core having an internal cavity of a diameter not greater than the thickness of the core wall surrounding the same, the core being made of a plurality of joined parts vulcanized and imprisoning compressed air within the cavity,

the wall being of such thickness as to safely contain such air under very high pressure independently of additional layers.

5. A golf ball comprising a core having an internal cavity, wall surrounding the same being not substantially less than the diameter of the cavity whereby the wall is of such thickness, as to safely contain air under veryhigh pressure independently of additional layers, the core being made of a plurality of parts vulcanized together and imprisoning highly compressed air within the cavity, a win ing of rubber band under tension surrounding the core, and a casing forming the exterior of the ball.

6. The method of making a golf ball comprising forming a core with'an internal cavity of a diameter not greater than the thickness of the wall surrounding the cavity, winding in different comparatively narrow zones about the core elastic bands under tension forming a layer of considerable thickness around the core, and providing a casing forming the exterior of the ball and fitting the outside of the winding. 7 The method of making balls consistin the thickness of the core winding glolf of entrapping ;h1gh ycompressed the core mosphere of highly compressed fluid, vulcanizing such parts together to retain the fluid, thereafter winding the core and placing a cover over the winding.

9. The method of making golf balls comprising forming two approximately hemispherical sections with beveled edges and with awall as thick as the diameter of the hollow interior, bringing such parts together in an atmosphere of compressed fluid, .vulcanizing the parts whilethe fluid is retained within them, then winding the core with elastic strands, and applying a shell over the windings.

10. The method of making golf balls comprising winding elastic strands about an elastic core, said winding being applied in successive zones at an angle to each other, the first zone compressing the core from its spherical shape to a spheroidal shape and the next one beingabout the major axis of such sp'heroid. i

11. The process of making golf balls consisting of forming a hollow vulcanized core, the same with elastic strands under tension suiiicient to distort the core, one zone of the winding drawin the core into a spheroid with the winding t hus lying about the minor axis, and a subsequent winding about the major axis and restoring the core to an approximately spherical form and thereby stretchin the preceding winding.

The method of making golf balls, comprlslng forming two approximately hemispheri a1 sections with beveled edges and with a wall thicker than the diameter of the hollow interior, bringing such parts together in an atmosphere of compressed fluid, vulcanizing the parts while the fluid is retamed within them, then winding the core w th elastic strands, said winding being Ape plied in zones and with sufiicient tension to contract the core from its form preceding the w nd ng, and a suitable shell covering the winding.

.In testimony whereof, I hereunto afiix my signature.

FRED THOMAS ROBERTS. 

